Festivals and events come to life in the Borough

HELLO to all residents, ratepayers and visitors to the Borough of Queenscliffe. As we enter the autumn months, it’s great to still see so many people around the borough supporting our dedicated traders and shopping local.

Our 3225 Love Local Shop Local competition that we’ve recently concluded distributed hundreds of dollars of gift cards to local stores, and continued to reinforce the importance of supporting small businesses.

Festivals return to the Borough

With so many of us slowly getting back to enjoying the things we were able to do prior to the pandemic, the return of major events in the borough marks a great milestone in being able to welcome back large-scale community gatherings.

This Sunday, March 13, I’ll be down at the Point Lonsdale Bowls Club for their Crackerjack Festival and lending a hand with the drawing of their major raffle at midday. After a forced hiatus last year, it’s great to see community sporting events like this return.

Another popular local festival making a reappearance is SacredEdge – the ‘arts, music and stories’ festival that shines a light on diversity and marginalised communities.

The local Uniting Church do a fantastic job in ensuring the voices of many different groups are amplified. While the events don’t begin until late April, there is a launch night coming up on the 23rd March. Visit the SacredEdge website for details.

Speaking of launch nights, I’m looking forward to speaking at the Town Hall just a little over a fortnight away for the launch of the Queenscliffe Literary Festival.

This is yet again another festival returning having been impacted by the pandemic, and it will be so pleasing to welcome back hundreds of tourists and locals to the series of events held across three weekends in May.

There are still tickets available to the launch event on the 29th of March starring Jon Faine, so check out the QLF website for details.

Finally, live music will be back with a bang as By The Pier festival makes its debut on the lawns of Princess Park later this month.

Organised by the Queenscliff Music Festival team, the three-day-festival features a host of standout names from across the Australian music scene, led by artists including Vera Blue, San Cisco, and Julia Stone.

Council is proud to be supporting this initiative, which will not only attract more young people to the borough, but also provide a chance for many artists who have been starved of live music opportunities throughout the past two years to show their wares once more. Tickets are selling fast at bythepier.com.au.

Cleaning up along Ocean Road

Despite the drizzly weather on Sunday morning, I was pleased to join with councillors and a great group of hearty local volunteers to tackle a clean-up in Point Lonsdale as part of Clean Up Australia Day.

We each took sections of Ocean Road, and over the course of the morning managed to collect a significant amount of rubbish that is now out of our flora and waterways which we value so much.

Thank you to those that joined us, I really appreciate it. Of course, it doesn’t need to be Clean Up Australia Day for you to do your bit – when you are out and about, take your rubbish home with you and let’s help keep our borough beautiful.

Boat ramp works begin this month

Better Boating Victoria’s planned Stage 2 upgrade of the Queenscliff Boat Ramp is starting from mid-March, delivering a vastly improved experience to all boaters and fishers.

BBV have timed the construction dates to occur outside of peak boating season to limit the disruption, however the ramp is likely to be fully closed for between 14 and 16 weeks to complete the upgrade.

BBV have all the information which you can find on their website at betterboating.vic.gov.au.

Time is running out to nominate a candidate for our Community Service Awards

There’s just 10 days left in the nomination period for the 2022 Borough of Queenscliffe Community Service Awards. But that’s still plenty of time for you to get your nomination in and recommend the most deserving people, groups and projects this calendar year.

Our annual awards ceremony celebrates the many individuals, community groups and organisations that make outstanding contributions to the community every year.

You can submit a candidate for the Citizen of the Year, Young Citizen of the Year, Community Event of the Year, Community Organisation of the Year, and Community Environment Project of the Year.

Anyone who lives, works, or volunteers in the Borough of Queenscliffe can be nominated by any member of the community.

Our reference group panel then judges the nominations against set criteria and makes a recommendation to council on who should be awarded each title.

To submit a nomination, visit queenscliffe.vic.gov.au/csa and follow the prompts. As always, if you have anything you’d like to discuss with me about the borough, drop me a line via the contact details on council’s website.

Kind regards,
Cr Ross Ebbels
Mayor, Borough of Queenscliffe